This is a question that crosses my mind a lot lately. It keeps popping up every time I hear some Martial Arts "Expert" or some chest thumping tough guy talk about how someone should handle a violent situation.
I am reminded of a couple incidents that have happened lately here in my home state, where one woman was attacked at knife point while she was jogging home from the gym.........at night...........by herself.........And then the other woman who left a movie theatre.........by herself........and stopped to help a man..........who's truck seemed broke down.........at night........in a parking lot..........While neither of these women asked for, or deserved to get attacked, they both exhibited the same behavior that 99.9% of all of the victims, male or female, show to their potential attacker.
They could have had a big neon sign that read "Here I am! ripe for your picking, I am doing nothing to prevent you from making me your next mark!" and nothing would have changed! I sometimes get so tired of spewing forth the same words, the same way every time something like this happens to some poor man or woman who doesn't care if it does happen to them.
What? I hear you out there yelling at me that how dare I say that they don't care if someone victimizes them. Well sit down and shut up, because that IS NOT what I am saying. What I am saying is everyday, we look the other way and keep our heads in our butts and wouldn't be able to tell if that person who just walked up next to us was a man or a woman, much less a potential threat to our lives. We just don't notice the signals that are right in front of our eyes.
Whats that? You in the back row? How can we notice the signals? OK, thank you for asking. Here is the number one way, WAKE THE HELL UP AND OPEN YOUR EYES! If you just took the time to look around you and look at the people around you, you would see an amazing thing.......some of these people look like they don't belong! If there is a sign and stories about how every woman who walks down this path at night in this park, becomes a rape victim, and you choose to walk down that path, are you asking for it? NO! Do you deserve it? NO! but did you put yourself in the situation to become a target? HELL YES! Don't do it.
If you see a truck out in a parking lot, at night and its just you and some guy, it may be a better idea to go and get someone to walk you out, or let them know that he needs help or just walk to your car and drive away (he's a big boy and can probably take care of himself), than to go up to him alone and try and help. Common sense!
Now, to the Martial Arts instructors or the tough guys that talk about these situations, and what brought me to the title of this story. I hear everyone telling everyone that "If she would have had a gun, or mace, or a really big knife, things would have been different and she could have protected herself and survived and killed the attacker."
I ask again.....What are you prepared to do? If you have a gun, and you are pointing it at the attacker, could you pull the trigger and TAKE ANOTHER HUMANS LIFE? Or push a knife into his heart, or slash his throat and watch as he dies in front of you? I would probably be able to say with 100% certainty that the answer is no! We have been taught all of our lives that we do not hurt our fellow man, even if said fellow man is trying to hurt or possibly kill us or our loved ones, its just not right. The good sane humans that we are will just not tolerate this kind of violence, regardless of what is being done to us at the time.
If people as a society are ever going to be able to live without fear, and be able to protect themselves from whatever violence the world should toss our way, there is one way to do it. Do unto him, before he does unto us. That it! In a nutshell! You have to stop thinking like Sally goodneighbor and think more like the criminal that just broke into your house and is trying to rape you, your daughter, or kill your family. Don't care about the consequence and just destroy the bad guy who is trying to make you his next victim! Simple. If you cannot do this, then we probably need to talk. And if you can do this, then you aren't reading about it, you are out committing it.
Prepare 2 Survive
Until next time,
